I don't understand the Stockings that everyone talks about, please explain!

[notso]

My DC put out a christmas sack with the mince pie, carrot and Baileys for Father Christmas near the fire and 'he' fills it with presents some from their lists and some small surprises.

We don't get them anything and presents from family go under the tree to be opened after dinner or on boxing day.

This is what happened for me and DH.

When would a stocking make an appearance?

This is purely nosey, oldest DC is 13 so too late to start a new tradition I think.

Sacks and stockings are the same no?

We do stockings in a big way and they are left by fireplace with little bits in. DPs this year will contain marmalade, POSH chocolate, POSH soap, handknitted hottie cover, tangarine and walnuts. Maybe his football team's mug.

We all get presents from everyone else in the morning after mass/before xmas lunch.

I buy bits and bobs all year long for stockings. Like bedmonster I love buying little things. For DS (not quite 3) I have a few things to take up some space - maracas, and sox with the grippy dots. I made stockings years ago, but they were too narrow and it was hard to get even the orange and apple out... I made new ones last year and now they are about twice as big! So harder to fill. I'll get a package of 3-pair of hiking sox for DP to help pad his out. There is always a big orange and a nice crunchy apple (like Pink Lady type) as well as a handful of nuts in the toe. And it's just not Christmas without chocolate coins, I'm sorry. But I don't put any other sweets in the stockings, I go with things that look traditional - wooden like dominoes or marbles, skipping rope, ball & jacks, that sort of thing. This year I found a lot of cute things at www.dotcom.com DS will have a deck of Snap! cards, a deck of "Heads and tails" where you match the top and bottom half of various people, and I found a Hungry Caterpillar card game at WHSmiths when I was in hospital during the summer.

So with lots of fun things such as this, everyone is preoccupied and we then get washed and dressed and have a nice breakfast. DS is always up at the break of dawn anyway, so we're used to that. We have a nice day inside, play in the snow if we have any, and I get the turkey in the oven. DS has a nap, I get the dinner ready, we have the present opening and dinner. Strangely, last year DS didn't want to open is presents. I think he was rather overwhelmed by it all. So he opened one or two a day until they were all open. With a January birthday, I was hoping the two holidays didn't run into each other! But "12 days of Christmas" is nice too!

Santa Claus/Father Christmas (DP is English) brings the big present, all others are wrapped and labelled under the tree - I don't have any other place to hide them to be honest. Santa Claus brings things that are metal or wood like a tricycle or a sled - he is good at woodworking like Dada. Mrs Claus brings the fabric things such as stuffed animals or their new clothes, fabric food, etc because she is good at sewing like Mama. And Mrs Claus always brings something "for the house" like a new set of teatowels or that sort of thing.

We tend to leave out a decorated gingerbread man and a glass of juice for Santa Claus, and as all our fireplaces are blocked up except for the one in the kitchen, so we put the stockings beneath the tree with a note of explanation in the kitchen (along with the goodies). It works for us!

I forgot, I made a batch of posh mango chutney while DP and DS were on holiday down in England at PIL. It only made 2 small jars, but they will go into DP's stocking. How I cleaned up the mess without him figuring it out is beyond me!

Other fun things to help fill up the stocking: bottle of bubbles. Even adults love this! Box of sidewalk chalk - 65p at our charity shop. New box of crayons - £1 or so. Bouncy balls - great fun and the cats like them too! And my time-obsessed son always likes to get a new diary in his stocking - again 99p at the charity shop. Go crazy!

Looove stockings! Think there would be uproar in our family if someone suggested not doing them. This year my sister suggested not doing stockings for adults She is 41. Fortunately me (35) and my other sister (39) over-ruled. We fill the ones for parents too. Obviously Santa doesn't fill our stockings any more Looking forward to sneaking ds stocking in his cot this year (he'll be 20 mo). I think stocking will be from Santa, all other presents from us/family/whoever. not that ds will have a clue what's going on

We hang the stocKings from the mantle piece then I fill them and place on beds when the Dcs are asleep. All other presents go under the tree and were from Father C when they were little, but are now all from us.DS opens his stocking then repacks it and comes in to our bed to do it all
again. They're not allowed to tear into them in the wee small hours and wake us up. Never have been and they accept that as a matter of course. 8am is early enough for stockings, and main presents are opened at around 11am after church.

Mine are late teens and twenties still have Santa stockings on the end of beds and presents under the tree from the big man :) we believe !! No one in our house has every asked that question .....so I am happy . They have asked lots of other tricky questions though lol

Go for it. And remind them that Santa needs a change every now and then - but if anyone doesn't want their stocking (or believe in Santa) then you would be very happy to send everything back to santa unopened! And by complete coincidence I think you'll find that everybody is more than happy to agree that santa does exist and they do believe

It is great to have them to open in the mornings - the anticipation of finding them on your bed or on the floor, being able to open them early in the morning and eating chocolate coins before breakfast, the fun showing the stuff to your parents (or opening on the bed with them).

My sister hit upon the ruse of leaving a stocking out for her dolls too - first year santa left a few extra sweets for them, so she left one out every year after that. One year, she found a massive bag that she folded up very small - mum has subsequently said that when she and dad were filling them up (crazy late at night as we'd had guests and she hadn't even started wrapping stuff beforehand) that they opened this little bag expecting it to be the normal size and it just kept on getting bigger and bigger and bigger - and as they were so tired and pissed it gave them such a bad laughing fit (you know the sort - where you just can't stop) that it was the only time they worried that they would wake us up.

I often put stuff that the dc need in their stocking that they would be getting anyway, as well as fun stuff, so it doesn't end up costing too much in 'present' money.

There's always a satsuma and bag of chocolate coins at the very bottom.

There's usually a new vest, pair of pants, pair of socks and nice t-shirt or shirt in it - conveniently ready to wear for christmas day itself (no faffing around finding stuff to wear when you're trying to organise cooking the turkey or getting presents opened). Rest of the pack of pants, socks etc usually ends up wrapped up as tree presents from santa.

There's a new toothbrush - albeit a fun one. and a bottle of bubble bath (double wrapped in a plastic bag first just in case of spillages!)

Notebook and either colouring pens and/or pencils/pens. Little sets of cute felt tips cost less than a pound in Tesco

Lego shops usually sell a charity little lego kit for a couple of pounds or a lego christmas kit (bought one today in fact that cost £3 of santa in a sleigh) - they are in a bag rather than a box, so a good stocking present for being crinkly and funny shaped.

sometimes a christmas special comic - if you roll it up it goes down the leg well. And they usually have a couple of bits of plastic tat toys on to entertain.

a card game and/or small book

Toy car or two (or maybe a toy plane or motor bike) - just the little ones that cost about a pound in the supermarket

I have learnt the hard way not to include anything that you do not want opened and spilt on the bed or carpet - no playdoh, scooby slime, alien slime etc (had you guessed I have boys!)

a new comb - they always go missing!

Finally it's always topped off by a cuddly toy, unwrapped, peeking out of the top of the stocking and watching you waiting for you to open the stocking!

ours have, the new outfits for Christmas Day for the DCs, also a new hat and gloves.

Small toys, whatever I have bought that fits.

Also a new DVD, in case of ridiculous early waking, we watch it in bed while we wait for any guests.

Some sweeties, a satsuma and a chocolate orange.

They are dragged into our room and opened together.

They are a source of great excitement.

(We also have a sack for Christmas eve, with a new christmas book each, new jamas dressing gown and slippers, a DVD to fall asleep to and a soft toy).

This thread has made me feel all excited and Christmassy!

I already buy stocking filler type presents but they sometimes get a bit overlooked when they are in with the big list items.

We never put presents out until the DCs are asleep on 24th. I don't think we could trust our 3yo not to rip into them if we put them out earlier! We just hide everything on the high shelf of our built in wardrobe thing. Though I'm not going to make the mistake of wrapping too far in advance this year - it just goes tatty.

When I was young I chose a present for my cat Oscar - one of those stocking shaped selection bags with cat treats/toy mice etc... We made the mistake of putting it under the tree early, and of course Oscar smelled the catnip and ripped into it! Oh the carnage :o

We had them at bottom of beds and always opened them alone, first thing. Lovely. The morning started with rustling from my brother's room, feeling my stocking with my feet, opening it, comparing contents with each other ( and swapping - mum was often fraught and knackered and would mix stuff up) and waking mum and dad. Always ended with chocolate coins, a satsuma and 50p or £1. Always had socks and pants and little fun things. Most random gift was a gift-wrapped cheese and pickle sandwich.

Rule was if we woke in middle of night we could open the top gift v quietly and then go back to sleep.

There was major upset when mum decided no more stockings after 18!

Mum said it meant her and dad got more sleep on christmas morning.

Excited now.

Thanks for all the tips on here. Had forgotten the chocolate orange! We'd always scoff all the chocolate from the stocking instead of breakfast, think DH might change that tradition for our DC though, shame.

Chocolate for breakfast on Christmas day is absolutely essential!

ROFL at the cheese and pickle sandwich! Did you eat it for breakfast?!

DD hangs her stocking on the end of her bed, it gets filled by santa in the night.

I usually commando crawl in and remove the stocking, fill it in our room and commando crawl back in to rehang it.

DD brings it into our bed to open, we used to have to wait for the GPs to arrive to go downstairs and start opening presents, but we've managed to stop all that nonsense.

The stocking is from Santa, everything else is from us or whoever bought it, nothing for dd goes under the tree until she's in bed.

OK... am feeling really old now... traditionally you put your stockings on the end of your bed to dry... And then on 24 December Santa Claus filled them with gifts. Sacks came much later when more money was available. Stockings were filled with small gifts, loose change, fruit (esp a tangerine or orange in the heel) and nuts. It kept you occupied whilst you waited for the rest of the house to wake up before going off to Church.

Best ever stocking tip from my friend today buy two exactly the same one to pre-fill and one to hang IMO genius.

Yeah but then that would ruin the fun of sneaking in. Laughing to think of Tea commando crawling into her kids bedroom!!

Stockings by end of bed. They have over sized stockings so I can fit books etc in it. All other presents under the tree - these are not from Father Christmas, but from us & other family. We open these after lunch - my tradition as dh's family rip them open immediately, but I find that a bit sad!

I remember one of dh's pupils saying to him that he had got an expensive laptop for Christmas and the best thing about it was that his parents didn't have to pay a penny as FC had bought it I don't understand why people are quite happy for FC to take all the credit!

As a child we each hung a pillowcase at the end of our bed for Santa to fill, no stockings. If we had asked for anything especially large it would be under the tree instead. As teenagers, the sack disappeared & the presents were all under the tree.

I'm with you OP, I know what a stocking is but have never had any experience of it personally.

Stockings and sacks are basically the same thing aren't they?

Father Christmas only does the stockings here, I do the main present (just one present each and sometimes a family present eg a board game if there's one we want) and all other presents are from who they are from. I love buying stocking fillers though so they do have an excessive amount quite a lot in them.

At the moment they always have (I'm expecting this to change as they get older)
Shiny coin
Chocolate coins
Satsuma
Box of festive friends
Small chocolate figure
Small (£3 or £4) lego set
A tree decoration
Mr Matey
Then a couple of bits of 50p tat that they love and I refuse to buy eg bouncy balls, whistles, bubbles- all the above normally comes in at around £10 altogether.

And then a couple of things they have asked for, this year ds has asked for a henry hoover and mario knex and dd has asked for hetty hoover and facepaints. They didn't specify full size hoovers so Santa has misunderstood and got the desktop versions . Another £15 each just on these two bits.

And then they are also getting a bobble bottle as they both need new drinking bottles for school and don't like the plasticky taste the water gets in their current ones. I would never normally spend so much on a drinks bottle but Father Christmas can somehow justify it. So that's another £9 each which means the stockings cost more than their main present. Again.

I used to love waking up and feeling the weight of the stocking at the foot of my bed so try to do that for my kids too but ds is a ridiculously light sleeper so his has ended up on the floor just inside his door the past couple of years. Then they bring them into my bed, open them up and then they start on their festive friends and satsumas while I doze back off.

They each have a 'nice' stocking that they hang up then I put half a pair of tights in each so that they can fit it all in and it can bulge over the top without falling out.

I haven't actually bought the stockings yet! We've only done them for two years, the first time I bought really crappy cheap ones, then last year we used a massive tatty one that we found in the attic and just bunged both their presents in together but labelled them.

This year all 4 of us are getting stockings so I need to buy 4 somehow. I can't see any nice ones around yet. I'd love to buy plain ones and personalise them but I'm really not skilled enough!

I had a pillowcase too. I left it on the end of the bed at night then awoke the next morning to find it all heavy and rustling on my feet, full of presents from Father Christmas. Presents from everyone else were put under the tree. As far as I knew, my parents didnt buy anything, everything in the pillowcase was from FC. DD still has a pillowcase and she too loves feeling and hearing it on her feet on Christmas morning.

Amazed at the child old enough to understand the value of money but too young to realise father Christmas isn't real.

Long term you'll get the credit.

I read a great stockings tip on here.
Buy 2 for each DC, they hang their empty one at the end of the bed, you fill the other and do a quick swap in the middle of the night.